First full week=done

I've officially gotten through my first full week of the semester!  Surprisingly, it was much easier to get used to, probably because I was more aware about what to expect in terms of the stress level that Westminster offers.  This has also helped me out in terms of what I can do for extracurricular activities, especially since I went overboard my first semester last year and tried to take on all these activities with 10 classes and dying a little each day...  I'm finally breaking my habit of saying "yes" whenever someone asks me to help out with something.  It feels so good, especially since I actually have some down time now.  Not much, but a little.

So the classes I'm taking this semester are Musicianship II, Western Civilization I, Music Histriography I, Math, Schola, Voice Lesson, Piano Lesson, Music Education Lab and Concert Bell Choir I.  Provided that I pass all of them, these classes give me a grand total of 18 credits.  Musicianship II is a fancier way of saying Music Theory II.  It's definitely going to be challenging for me to understand what my professor is talking about since I didn't have the greatest professor last semester for Theory I (I basically spent all of my time analyzing intervals and chords.  Plus, he didn't help when it came to ear training...).  I feel a little embarrassed because there are a good number of freshmen in my class and they have asked questions using terms that I didn't even know existed.  But then again, they must have been spoiled with getting theory classes with good teachers in high school.  Oh well, my professor seems to grade more on effort than accuracy, so as long as I try really hard, I'll be ok.

Can I just say that I absolutely love Western Civilization I?  Aside from being a history freak, my professor (who has a really cool Russian accent if I may add) is so cool and when she teaches, everyone can tell that she's really passionate about it.  So take a professor who loves what she's doing, add ancient Egypt, and it becomes one of my favorite classes :)

Music Histriography I is basically like Western Civ, only it's about the history of music (although I have no idea where the word "Histriography" came from and apparently my computer doesn't know either because it keeps underlining it in red).  I find the class to be really boring, but the material in the book is really interesting.  Did you know that the Greeks understood music by using letters/symbols, which told them the specific notes and there were over 70 of them?  Makes reading notes on a staff seem so much easier, doesn't it?

Math....oh boy.  I'm sure my professor was a good teacher...about 40 years ago.  Now, he just rambles about nonsense and when he writes on the board, he doesn't show every step he takes to get an answer so I get really confused because the numbers randomly come up and I don't know how he got those answers.  Plus he chooses the hardest ways to get an answer.  Instead of writing a simple equation, he has to count every single thing out and scribble on the board until there's no room left.  It's not like the math is hard, in fact, it's probably Algebra I stuff, but I haven't taken any math since 11th grade.  I don't remember any of it.  I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I'm going to need a math tutor.  This is not something I expected to have trouble with, but apparently I was wrong, haha.

Schola (Schola Cantorum) is the sophomore choir at WCC.  Good news:  I don't have to wear that red robe until commencement!!!  Bad news:  I get to spend most of my spring break going on a concert tour and I get to pay a "small fee" to go on it.  That really upsets me that I have to pay for a tour that I'm forced to go on.  We will be heading down south to Virginia and North Carolina, which didn't surprise us at all since they've been going to the same places for 3 years straight.  I'm not looking forward to it...

Voice and Piano are still my favorite classes.  My piano professor was so happy with the progress that I made over the summer.  He's also realized that I've been taking a liking for Baroque music (after I learned it and am not ripping my hair out and throwing my music across the room because I'm making Bach roll around in his grave), so he's giving me more Bach and Handel pieces.  My voice professor was really happy too, which was a good thing because I was 25 minutes late to class (I thought it was at 1:45, but it was really 1:15).  He made fun of me because I showed up with this really goofy grin on my face, all ready to start my lesson and then I turned 7 shades of red when I found out that I was that late.  Whoops.  Speaking of voice lessons, I'm no longer a mezzo-soprano.  I've now moved up to soprano again and it's actually more fun than I thought.  I'm loving the high notes now that I can actually hit them and I feel so much more comfortable up there.  However, now that my high notes are good, my middle range needs work, so I have to retrain my middle range.  It seems like every time one range is fixed another one needs retraining...

Music Ed lab is going to be interesting this semester since we will be hosting a Madrigal Dinner at Rider in December.  It's going to be catered and we will be entertaining our guests like they did during the Medieval Times, where there would be actors, jugglers, and chamber choirs singing madrigals at the dinner.  It's somewhat similar to the Christmas carolers at Jessyca's wedding, only there will be more groups.  

I'm now a part of the auditioned Bell Choir this semester!  I'm so excited to be in this choir.  14 of us will get to play the largest collection of handbells in the world (8 octaves!!!)!  And the best part is, I will be touring Florida in the winter and people are paying us to go on tour so we don't have to pay a cent!  See, Schola should learn something from Bell Choir...and every other choir at WCC that goes on tour.  Probably the school concert that I'm most excited about playing in is the Readings and Carols concert.  It's going to be so much fun playing in the Princeton University Chapel, plus I will have lots of things to do and not have to stand and stare for 10-20 minutes while other groups are performing, haha.

I've posted my updated schedule.  I decided that Monday is going to be my day off from practicing, lol.  I know it's only been one week, but I can already tell that it's going to be a much better semester than my first one.  I'm having much more fun and I don't feel like I'm drowning in papers and woods/strings/brass/percussion instruments.  Now if only I could get rid of having 8 am classes every day of the week...     

Back at WCC!

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm back at zoo...I mean, Westminster Choir College, and my first day as a college sophomore starts tomorrow!  I sometimes feel like I only recently graduated high school and then I have to remind myself that I already finished up my first year in college.  It's really exciting and scary at the same time...

Move-in day was last Thursday for returning students (everyone moves in so early because the choir conductors have to place everyone into voice parts in the choirs).  When I walked in with my parents, who were once again really happy to drop me off and get me out of the house, we looked around the room and saw that there was no chest of drawers.  Now I know the closet has space, but it doesn't have enough to fit all of my clothes and my bath/cleaning supplies.  We found my RA and asked her to put in a work order for drawers, but she told us that they may have a short supply because so many people were already putting in work orders for drawers.  Great...  So, I left all of my clothes in my suitcase, set up everything else, and by the time my parents and I came back from lunch, we saw a chest of drawers sitting awkwardly in the middle of the room.  Well, I told my dad that Sarah, my new roommate who is awesome btw, and I would handle it.  Unfortunately, Sarah and I couldn't find any 

room to put the drawers on the wall, so it still sits awkwardly in the middle of the room.  Sarah decided to cut some sticky notes and make a smiley face to stick on it as well as hang up hooks to bring some meaning to the drawers.  I now have two hooks on my side that will eventually hold all of my scarves.

So since move-in day was Thursday and classes start tomorrow, I basically had a whole week of free time.  I thought that it would be really difficult to find things to do, but I was wrong.  I had three movie/game nights, a picnic on the Princeton battlefield along with a fun and interesting game of badminton (six people while only having four rackets, the wind blowing, and none of us being very athletic), a welcome-back BBQ with the Westminster Christian Fellowship, and a girls' night out to a Chinese restaurant and the small movie theater where I got to see "Julie and Julia" for the second time :)  I had so much fun getting reacquainted with my friends, plus my friends seemed to enjoy the fudge I made for them.

Even though I'm having such a wonderful time, I'm not having the best of luck when it comes to injuries.  In six days, I managed to give myself two major blisters (that was my own stupidity) and a swollen shin.  On Sunday, I did the mile walk to Trinity Church for the first time since May and I decided to wear my brand new high heels without any stockings/pantyhose/padding and I gave myself two fine blisters on each of my pinky toes.  Much to my embarrassment, the family showed up to church, but it was also nice that I had a ride back to the campus, haha.  The shin, on the other hand, was the result of me being the unfortunate one who was on the end of my team's line when we played "Red Rover" at the Christian Fellowship BBQ.  A person on the other team was called over and she tried to run and break through the grip between Andrew (the guy standing next to me) and me.  She didn't get through, but she took me along for the ride and I ran into the side of the swing set that was next to me.  My shin hit a corner and it's now swollen.  I guess being part-Treusch I should know that I'm prone to getting injuries.

Anyway, I've been having a great time and I'm enjoying the last few hours that I have before I lose most of my social life.  This year, besides taking classes, practicing voice and piano for 4-6 hours a day, and ripping my hair out over music theory homework, I'll be returning as an active member of Christian Fellowship, Sigma Alpha Iota, and MENC (Music Educators National Conference).  I'm also going to serve as a coach for students taking 

Critical Pedagogy II online, you know, the class I took over the summer and almost needed therapy afterwards.  I'll still be at Trinity and I will once again sing with the CMENC Singers (where we sang choral music from Brazil).  This year, we will be singing Hanukah jazz music and will be going on a trip to Longwood Gardens in December!  This is worth double Professional Development Activity (PDA), so I'll have all my hours done for this semester and next semester!  Wish me luck!  I'm going to need it...